By Josh Baugh :
April 6, 2013
: Updated: April 6, 2013 10:52pm

At least eight City Council candidates have had run-ins with the law as adults, including every challenger in the District 2 race.

The council hopefuls have been arrested on charges of public intoxication, possession of marijuana and other things, including auto theft, public records show.

The San Antonio Express-News routinely performs background checks on all City Council candidates.

Public officeholders may not serve if they have a “final conviction” of a felony offense. That means people with arrest records, misdemeanor convictions or felony convictions that have been set aside by a judge after the successful completion of probation aren't prohibited from serving. Also, those who were charged with felonies but completed deferred adjudication can serve in public office.

Whether voters will elect them is a different issue.

Political consultant Trish DeBerry said one of her first questions to potential candidates is whether they have any skeletons in their closets. If there are, they need to determine how harmful their exposure might be.

“You're held to a certain level of scrutiny when running for political office, and every stone will be turned over to find out what is in somebody's background,” she said.

Diaz is one of two candidates to have faced felony charges. His legal history spans three decades, beginning with a misdemeanor conviction of unlawfully carrying a weapon in 1976.

He received probation on two felony charges in the 1980s — one for burglary with the intent to commit theft and one for assault causing bodily injury.

Diaz said he believes he successfully completed his probation and can hold office.

A third felony charge, in 1986, of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury, was dismissed. Diaz has since faced four misdemeanor charges, including possession of marijuana, unlawful carrying of a weapon and reckless conduct, which all have been dismissed.

Diaz, 59, said all of the charges against him were rooted in a previous life tinged by alcohol.

“I've had problems with drinking when I was a younger man,” he said. “I was caught in the wrong place because of my drinking.”

Darden, too, found himself in legal troubles because of drinking. In October 2006, he was found guilty of a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated, for which he served probation and paid a fine, court records show.

He completed probation in January 2008 and in October of that year, he was charged with evading detention. In June 2009, he was charged with driving with an invalid license.

Darden failed to satisfy the terms of his deferred adjudication and the cases were closed, court records show.

Darden said his legal struggles have helped him transform into a different person.

“For me going through that process, paying my debt to society, all of those things together made me a better decision maker,” he said.

The third District 2 candidate with legal troubles, Medina, 31, said his misdemeanor charge of assault causing bodily injury “was a misunderstanding.” Medina said he had the record expunged.

The candidate's explanation of the 2006 incident was vague, but it goes something like this: As a University of Texas at San Antonio student, Medina was living off-campus with roommates. Medina declined to identify them but said “they were having some problems” at the time.

Declining to say what exactly happened, Medina said he took the blame for the “altercation,” deciding “to tell the police officer it was my fault in that situation.”

Medina, who runs a small Internet-based business selling comics and toys on the web, said that when his parents and lawyer found out that he'd assumed blame, “they were pretty mad at me.”

In District 5, candidate John Carlos Garcia said he had his record expunged as well. In 2007, police were called to his insurance office, where he and his longtime girlfriend had a dispute.

According to a police report, Garcia, 34, bloodied his girlfriend's lip when he punched her in the face. He went inside his office and waited for the police to arrive. Garcia doesn't dispute that he hit her. At the time, he claimed self defense.

Charged with misdemeanor assault, Garcia didn't face prosecution because his girlfriend declined to press charges or testify against him, according to a 2009 report in the Express-News.

Garcia has two children with the woman — one from prior to the incident. Garcia said the two were a couple until November, when they split up. She still is a partner at his insurance firm as well, he said.

In an interview, Garcia was hesitant to discuss the incident.

“I take responsibility for that. If I didn't, I would have run (from the scene),” he said. “I probably will never be able to forgive myself for that.”

Another District 5 candidate — Ricardo Briones, a lawyer — found himself in a situation that required legal representation.

When he was a law student at St. Mary's University, Briones said he and some buddies were downtown. They were drunk, and he was sober, said Briones, 34.

They were all arrested for public intoxication. Briones said the charges against him were dismissed.

The incident wasn't revealed in the Express-News' background checks. But in a questionnaire that Briones completed for the newspaper's Editorial Board, he indicated that he'd been arrested.

“I always think that honesty is the best policy in these things,” he said.

In 1981, Shamblen was charged with theft of a vehicle valued between $200 and $10,000. He received probation, which he successfully completed, court records show.

“I was with somebody who was trying to steal something, and I wasn't actually trying to steal it and I went to leave the scene and I ended up getting arrested anyway,” he said. “The guy dumped it on me, so I was the one who ended up paying the price for it.”

A year later, Shamblen, 52, faced a charge of burglarizing a coin-operated machine.

“It was the same thing — some people that I knew busted into a machine, and they tried to blame it on me again. And I didn't put up for it that time and it got dismissed.”

In 2004, Shamblen was arrested on a charge of possession of marijuana and pleaded not guilty.

A judge later dismissed the charge for insufficient evidence, court records show.

In the race for mayor, two candidates challenging Julián Castro have had incidents that resulted in charges against them.

Sergio “The Force” Falcon was indicted on a charge of fraudulent use or possession of identifying information, a state jail felony. The case was dismissed because of a “missing witness,” court records show.

Falcon, 46, said it was a misunderstanding. He was serving a client as a home health care worker, he said, and had to use the client's ID to pick up medication and conduct banking on behalf of his client.

A friend of the client apparently alleged that Falcon was inappropriately using the client's identification. Falcon declined to name the client and said the man now is dead.

“I loved the man dearly, so (the charge) was complete BS,” he said.

Perennial candidate Michael Idrogo also faced an assault charge in 2004, when police were called to his mother's home.

According to a 2009 Express-News report, Idrogo's mother told police she was upstairs when her son burst through the door, yelling and shaking his finger at her before pushing her.

The case later was dropped because his mother refused to testify, the 2009 article says.